Postcard from the Summit – Hard Headed
Category: Postcard from the Summit
Photos from the top
Postcard from the Summit – Sunset Crowd
Postcard from the Summit – Another Mauna Kea Sunset
Up top giving some family a tour of the telescopes. We stayed for sunset, it was worth the wait…
Postcard from the Summit – Walking to the True Summit
It has been many years since I last stood atop the summit of Mauna Kea, the true summit that is. A couple decades ago, while on vacation I walked to the summit as a tourist. All these years of driving past on the way to work, I have not stopped and taken the short walk to the summit of Mauna Kea from the road, until now.
Broken gear on a weekend, driving up the mountain by myself. Once the gear was fixed I was free to head back down. Without a vehicle full of guys just wanting to go home after a full day at work, I was free to stop and take a walk with the camera…
Postcard from the Summit – Island Volcano
Postcard from the Summit – Keck 1 Operator’s Station
Postcard from the Summit – Segment Exchange
Postcard from the Summit – Secondary Lift
Postcard from the Summit – Azimuth Wrap
The massive set of cables going into the telescope must twist as the telescope rotates. Besides cables there are also hoses to carry high pressure oil, glycol coolant and compressed air. To accommodate the rotation, these cables and hoses go through a large assembly called the Azimuth Wrap. Looking a bit like an oversize bicycle chain with cable laced through the links, the wrap insures the cable does not kink, tangle or stretch as the telescope sweeps back and forth.
Lacing new cable through the wrap is an intricate task of threading through the metal comb that supports the cables in each link. See the little pink one in the middle, just did that…
Postcard from the Summit – Waimea Pastures
